Swiss border provisions cannot apply to Ireland
From Dr Denis MacShane, London, UK — Monday’s most read letter
Your two correspondents (Mark Burges Watson, April 25 and C Hayward, April 27) on Swiss border controls miss the point. All main roads into Switzerland from EU neighbours have physical border and customs control buildings. These do not exist in Ireland following the Good Friday Agreement.
If they return they will be targets for a new generation of Irish nationalists who regard Sinn Fein as having sold out on age-old ambitions for a united Ireland. That is a realistic fear given the long history of physical attacks on UK-Ireland border posts in most decades since Ireland won independence in 1920.
The former Swiss foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, was in London recently talking about Swiss border and customs arrangements with the latter being strictly enforced as it is illegal to take into Switzerland more than 1kg of meat — four good steaks — and five litres of wine.
I asked her if Switzerland was thinking of abolishing border posts in a manner similar to Northern Ireland since 1998. “Mais non,” she replied as if the idea was bizarre.